CHARLESTON ORPHAN HOUSE, 160 Calhoun Street: When the City of Charleston was incorporated in 1783, it was provided that poor orphan children should be cared for by the town. At first boys and girls were boarded in private homes and educated at Charleston’s expense. In November, 1792, the corner stone of the orphanage on the present site was laid, and in October, 1794, it was occupied. At that time the roll of orphans numbered more than a hundred. In 1855, the building was greatly improved and enlarged. In the belfry is one of Charleston’s fire-alarm bells and above the belfry the figure of Charity. Clergymen of Charleston take turns in officiating in the orphans’ chapel, on the Vanderhorst Street side. Distinguished visitors to Charleston have inspected the Orphan House, among them Grover Cleveland when he was here, with Mrs. Cleveland, in 1888. The Charleston Orphan House is one of the oldest in the country. Generous gifts and legacies have greatly assisted the Board of Commissioners, the chairman of whom at this time is the Honorable John F. Ohlandt.
FIRST WHITE CHILD, Born at East Bay and Tradd: The site of the Tradd home is at the northwest corner of East Bay and Tradd Streets. Here was born the first white child of the colony, a boy, Robert Tradd. The Tradd family has perished in Charleston. It is perpetuated in the street so named.
JOHN EDWARDS’ HOUSE, 15 Meeting Street: John Edwards came from England and prospered as a merchant in Charlestown. In 1770 he built the fine mansion at what is now 15 Meeting Street. Edwards cast his lot with the patriots and contributed of his fortune to the cause of independence. “I would rather lose my all, than retain it subject to British authority,” he is reported to have said. During the British occupation in the Revolution, this house was quarters for Admiral Arbuthnot (Sir Henry Clinton was in the Miles Brewton house, 27 King Street). When in 1793 the French fled from San Domingo, the illustrious Compte de Grasse was entertained in this house. (Members of his family are interred in old St. Mary’s Churchyard, Charleston). The Edwards home is the property of the family of George W. Williams, banker.
GIBBES ART GALLERY, 131 Meeting Street: “For the erection or purchase of a suitable building to be used as a hall or halls for the exhibition of painting and for necessary rooms for students in the fine arts,” James S. Gibbes bequeathed about $125,000. The memorial building was erected on the site of the old Grand Opera House, opposite the site of the South Carolina Institute Hall in which the Ordinance of Secession was signed December 20, 1860. It is under supervision of the Mayor and the Carolina Art Association, chartered in December, 1858.
Lord William Campbell House, 34 Meeting Street
William Washington House, 8 South Battery
HIBERNIAN HALL, 105 Meeting Street: Says the bronze tablet at the gateway: “Founded March 17, 1801. Met in Corbett’s Tavern until construction of this hall. Dedicated 1841. Long a center of civic life in disasters as in prosperity. Its presidents alternate Catholic and Protestant. Hibernian Society.” Prominent among its founders was Judge Aedanus Burke, of whom many merry stories survive. Through many years the St. Cecilia Society gave its balls in this hall. At the St. Patrick’s Day banquets of the Hibernian Society men of lustrous national and international reputation have spoken.
THE ENSTON HOME, 720 King Street: “To make old age comfortable,” William Enston, native of Canterbury, England, left his estate, after life tenures, for an institution for old and infirm persons. In 1882, in the life-time of the widow, arrangements for constructing the Enston Home were begun and in February, 1899, the memorial hall, a chapel and meeting place was formally dedicated. Cottages occupy about a half of the property. The Board of Trustees is watchful of the conditions warranting further growth. The Enston Home is an exemplary practical charity.